Fearing for the future For ten years researchers from the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion visited the same 200 families in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the UK. The findings – now published in a new book, Family Futures – provide a clue to the many frustrations that led to the riots this summer, argues Anne Power.
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fter rioting erupted in several English cities this summer the country searched for explanations. Why was this happening? How could people destroy their own streets like this? What could stop it happening again? Most explanations did not make sense of such complex and contradictory events. The massive and repeat disorders were described as “uncontrolled criminal lawlessness”; or “an inevitable consequence of the brutal funding cuts”, hitting young, out-ofwork, out-of-school teenagers particularly hard. Yet the reality is more complex, for these are neither “feral children” nor “helpless victims”. They are frustrated, worried young citizens who see their futures closed off from them. Family Futures: childhood and poverty in urban neighbourhoods (2011), which I co-wrote with Helen Willmot and Rosemary Davidson, highlights parents’ dominant worry: their children’s future. The book is based on ten years’ research visiting the same 200 families each year, in highly disadvantaged neighbourhoods. We wanted to find out about obstacles and progress in bringing up children in difficult areas. Which parts of their lives involved the biggest struggle? Which policy changes actually improved things in the country’s most deprived areas? Our research illuminates clearly that even small improvements to the fabric of a community can 6
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LSE Connect
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Winter 2011
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dramatically improve the lives and chances of people who live there, particularly for families with children. For instance, keeping the local swimming pool open, secure entrances on a housing estate, or reclaiming an open space where young people can let off steam – these are relatively modest improvements that have a profound impact on confidence, optimism and well-being. And it is this clear cause and effect between physical or environmental improvements to an area and the well-being of its families that suggests one simple way of explaining social disorder. Rather than reaching for moral or metaphysical terms such as “feckless” or “evil”, it may make more sense to look at the components of everyday life – housing, jobs, schools, transport, leisure, health and policing – and how they help or hinder a community. Where they fail, they leave it on the verge of collapse. Family Futures was published a month before the riots broke out. In the conclusion, we asked “How far have poor neighbourhoods come in a decade of special initiatives, and how much further do they have to go before all young people have an equal chance of succeeding?” We found that the financial pressure to cut support to areas like these risked pushing them over the cliff edge. The spectacle of arson and looting that erupted in London, Manchester, Birmingham and other cities in early August was